EMERSON] COOTY, A PET COATI 359 



the bungalow and vainly trying to reach us with his waving paws. 

 His string had broken and, given this great freedom, he had 

 attempted to reach the source of scratching as quickly as possible. 

 He had missed the steps but the ladder was the next best approach 

 so he had used that. He has escaped many times since but never 

 goes away from our climips of bamboo. We do not keep him tied 

 in order to prevent his escaping but only to keep him from annoying 

 us while at work. At first we thought an iron ring on the end of his 

 string would prevent his being too much trouble and at the same 

 time give him freedom; but this kept getting tangled up in so 

 many things, that we were forced to keep him tied; but he seems 

 happy at present with a dead tree to climp upon and with a long 

 enough string to give him quite a range of activity. 



Cooty reminds me more of a small bear than of a raccoon, in 

 spite of his ringed tail. His walk and ways of sitting and standing 

 are very bear like. His various positions of scratching himself 

 often throw us all into convulsions of laughter. Sometimes it is 

 one foot or the other, and quite often he sits up and turning his 

 body he scratches at his side with both hands. Aside from us, his 

 chief pla>inate is his tail. This he plays with, bites and has even 

 been seen to pick it up and carry it ofiE in his mouth, his hind feet 

 walking every which way trying to keep up with the tail. 



Cooty's himdreds of fimny little antics and unfailing cheerfulness 

 have so entered our lives in connection with our studies, that he 

 shall remain with us to the end of our stay. Although we send our 

 other animals, many of them nice pets, away to the Bronx Park, 

 we cannot give Cooty up. Some day, maybe, Cooty will be there 

 too, a long way from his jungle home; but that day will only come 

 when none of us are able to stay in British Guiana and something 

 must be done with him. 



